The Tycoon's Guide to Raising Kids

[Thanks to @-yanzzm- for the cover lettering]

The year Lin He returned to the Lin family, he was eighteen and had finally escaped his life as a battered street punk.

The pampered young master who had once been cherished by everyone had become illiterate, swore when he spoke, wolfed down his food as if there might not be another meal, and asked, “How much?” before doing anything.

His parents and siblings couldn’t bring themselves to scold him. They doted on him and indulged him, practically treating him like a three-year-old.

Then, at a certain banquet, Lin He got drunk after greedily downing the fine liquor he’d never tasted before. A few rich second-generation heirs blocked his way.

His head was spinning, and the irritability he’d picked up from years on the streets surged up in an instant. He drunkenly raised a hand. “Get lost…”

“Smack!”

He hit the wrong person. Lin He slapped Zhao Lin, the head of the Zhao family, right across the face.

The entire room fell silent.

People said Zhao Lin was cold and domineering, ruthless in his methods. His immense wealth and power made everyone keep their distance, yet they still had to curry favor with him.

The second-generation heirs stared in shock, gleefully waiting for Lin He to get chewed out.

Even Lin He was stunned. Half sober now, he opened his mouth helplessly. “I-I…”

The man turned his head. A red mark quickly appeared across one side of his face. Liquor trickled down his jaw and dripped onto his black suit, leaving a small dark stain.

Just as everyone expected him to lose his temper, Zhao Lin lifted a hand and wiped the liquor from his cheek with his fingertip. An affectionate, helpless smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Does your hand hurt?”

*

The next morning, before Lin He had even woken up, he was bundled up with his blanket and sent to the Zhao family home.

With bedhead and a dazed look, Lin He stared at Zhao Lin in his suit. “…Huh?”

“For the time being, I’ll take care of you.”

“Take care” of him, as it turned out, meant keeping him in line.

No more swearing, no more gambling, and he had to catch up on his studies.

The thing that drove Lin He most up the wall was learning to read.

He flopped over the desk and gave up. “I really am illiterate. Can you stop torturing me?”

Zhao Lin turned a page without looking up. “Even illiterate people have to eat.”

“…”

“Start by learning to read the menu.”

Lin He bristled. “I got along just fine before!”

Zhao Lin finally looked at him. After a long silence, he said, “Did you really? Then why are you covered in so many scars?”

*

Zhao Lin hadn’t always been as powerful and ruthless as he was now. His youthful confidence and innocent nature had both come to an end the day Lin He was kidnapped.

Thirteen years passed before Lin He finally came back.

Zhao Lin devoted everything he had to teaching him to read, helping him grow up, and showing him what it really meant to love someone.

After Zhao Lin had cleaned up Lin He’s messes time and again, Lin He couldn’t help calling him, “Uncle.”

“Mm.”

“Why are you so good to me? No matter how big a mistake I make, you never scold or hit me.”

Zhao Lin looked at him for a long time.

“My good boy, when you get someone back after losing them, you have to handle them gently.”

Reader’s Guide:

1. Stern, serious, deeply devoted big shot x carefree, innocent, illiterate sweetheart

2. Older man/younger man | size difference | sweet doting romance | an old flame reignited

3. At first, the top sees the bottom only as a child and raises him to atone; the more he raises him, the more he falls in love, until he spoils him rotten

4. The outline is set. Every character has their own motivations and growth arc

Upcoming Novel Break

The next novel I’m writing is “The Northeastern Tough Guy Who Found a Sickly Wife.” If you’re interested, little darlings, please add it to your reading list!

[Northeastern long-haul trucker, tough and dependable, devoted to his wife 💪 x sickly, deaf-mute little chef, gentle and domestic ☺️]

[Size difference | small-town life | from rags to riches | strong Northeastern flavor]

Cheng Xiao left his village as a teenager to make his way in the world. He’d endured every kind of hardship, driving long-distance and sleeping in his truck. A towering six-foot-two, broad-shouldered and sturdy, he was a man of few words.

The day he finally saved five hundred thousand yuan, he found a little mute who was nearly frozen to death in the blizzard of midwinter.

The mute was so thin his bones stuck out. He had no money and curled up in the sleeper cab of the truck, trembling like a leaf with fever.

Cheng Xiao looked at him in silence, then spent every last bit of the money he’d saved for more than a decade to marry a wife on his medical care.

When the mute woke up and learned how much money he’d cost, he cried in a panic and insisted on leaving the hospital. He didn’t want to burden a kind person.

Cheng Xiao had just brought over some hot water to wipe him down. Seeing the tears streaming down the mute’s pretty, fragile face, he struggled for a long time before managing to say:

“Where are you going? Just owe me the money for now. You can pay me back later.”

The little mute wrote him an IOU, his hand trembling as he carefully wrote out his name, Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng was gentle and quiet, never competing for anything and never wanting to trouble anyone.

But he was so frail that he couldn’t do heavy work. His hands and feet were always cold in winter, and even when he was sick, he didn’t know how to call out for help.

Yet he had a remarkable knack for things. His cooking made the neighbors swallow hungrily, and he could tidy up the messy truck Cheng Xiao brought home after a long haul until it was spotless.

At first, Cheng Xiao thought he was simply looking after a sickly little thing. Then one day, after being away for work for more than half a month, he came home exhausted and covered in dust.

The house was warm. The plastic slippers that had sat by the door all year had been replaced with padded winter slippers, and freshly cooked dishes were laid out on the table.

Hearing him come in, Gu Sheng poked his head out of the kitchen in an apron. His eyes lit up, and he gave Cheng Xiao a smile that revealed a pair of pretty dimples.

Cheng Xiao stood in the doorway, frozen for a long time.

*

Someone came to take Gu Sheng away, claiming he belonged to their boss. They were rich and powerful, and a group of them showed up carrying clubs. Terrified, Gu Sheng clutched Cheng Xiao’s old undershirt.

Cheng Xiao didn’t say a word. He just held Gu Sheng tightly in his arms, his back covered in bruises and bloody welts.

Watching Gu Sheng cry in anguish as the hearing aids he’d only just managed to buy broke, Cheng Xiao hated himself for being so useless for the first time.

Cheng Xiao fought through the pain, gently wiped away Gu Sheng’s tears, and said between shallow breaths, “I’m here, little brother… Don’t be scared.”

Later, a powerful businessman emerged in the Northeast. He wore a cold expression for everyone, except for the tenderness he showed the young man by his side.

At every public appearance, photos caught only the big boss looking down at him, while the boy faced the cameras with a radiant smile.

Someone asked Cheng Xiao what he’d been thinking at the start, and why he’d treated Gu Sheng so well.

Cheng Xiao took a drag on his cigarette and thought for a long time.

“It was freezing out, and he had such a hard time on his own. If you can lend a hand, you should.”

“Besides…”

Cheng Xiao looked over at the person painting in the sunroom and smiled a little bashfully.

“He’s my wife. If I don’t cherish him, who will?”

*

“Does it feel good, sweetheart?”

Gu Sheng panted softly, lying face down against Cheng Xiao’s solid, burning-hot chest. He shook his head, said nothing, and gave him a shy smile.

Cheng Xiao felt that no matter how much he loved Gu Sheng, it would never be enough. He wanted to give him even more.

The old folks say the Northeast developed early, with wide-open land. The vast black soil raised people with equally generous hearts. If someone needs a hand, you lend one. And a man cherishing his wife is only right and proper.

Cheng Xiao thought they were absolutely right.

Reader’s Guide:

1. Gu Sheng’s deafness and muteness will be cured

2. A slow-burn story that unfolds at a leisurely pace

3. Lots of Northeastern dialect

4. Hoping to launch this winter. (Note from September 2026: the more people add it to their reading lists, the sooner it’ll launch, ovo 🫶🏻)

Theme: Love means protecting and nurturing someone